A/N: First things first. I have to say that this story idea was inspired by a story I read well over a year ago in the One Tree Hill section, called Titanic. It's a Naley story which pretty much follows the movie. Anyway, it hasn't been updated since December 2010 and I had asked if I might have the original author's blessing to do my own SL version back in June of this year, but I suspect the story is abandoned (she hasn't updated any of her stories since December 24, 2010), because I never heard back and the story was never updated. If you want to check out the Naley story, it's by rachel2502. So I'm going to proceed anyway. But as I said, this was inspired by her story, with a big alternative take on the idea, which you'll see immediately. However, if she were to decide to come back to her FFN account and ask me to take down my story, I am perfectly willing to do so, since it was inspired by her idea. Oh, and one other thing, don't get too excited. I seriously should not be posting it, because I have no idea when I will be able to will finish it, but it's just sitting around on my laptop, so I opted to post the prologue.

The Secret Life Of The Titanic

Prologue

The people came in droves that day: rich and poor, better and worse, sick and healthy. There was an energy in the air, like standing in a downpour with a backdrop of thunder and the threat of lightning sparking at the hairs on the back of your neck. The lacquer had bred with the ocean air, producing an intoxicatingly vulgar tang that burned his throat on the way down to his lungs the moment the door opened.

Richard Underwood lifted his head to in the direction of the sun which backlit the ship docked before him. It almost looked magical, outlined in the ethereal solar light, like a portrait of the Virgin Mary. And the stark size came as a surprise, bigger than even his dreams had ever been. He was momentarily taken aback, until a gloved hand dangled out in front of his view.

"Aren't you going to assist me?"

The sultry yet demanding voice tore his thoughts away from the ship and all he could see was the white satin waving before his eyes. He adjusted a robotic half smile and took the hand in a dutiful manner and offered his services, helping the wavy haired brunette to which the hand belonged from her seat. "My apologies."

"Forgive him, Zoe," Robert Underwood spoke as he too stepped out. "Such an exciting day, isn't it, son?" He motioned grandiosely towards their sea bound destination. "It's hard not to get taken out of the moment."

Richard cringed as his father's hand landed on his shoulder. "Sure," he hissed, quickly slipping to the wayside.

"It is brilliant," Zoe agreed, her icicle eyes catching the natural light and gleaming as she wrapped herself around Richard's arm. The diamond on the European cut art deco ring that rested on her finger cast a rainbow onto her fiancé's cheek as she pushed him through the crowd towards the first class boarding ramp. "They say it's called The Ship of Dreams."

Richard crossly shook his head. "Isn't the latest obsession always someone's dream come true?"

Zoe bit back a sour expression and persistently continued, "They say it's unlike any other ship that's ever been created before: they say it's unsinkable."

"It should fly for the expense of the tickets."

"Expense is no obstacle for us, is it, Richard?" Zoe curled her arm around his lower back as they made their way to the railing.

Richard perked up, standing ramrod straight in an attempt to evade the slithering arm. His eyes turned to the churning crowd on the dock, all of whom were looking to the Titanic and its precious cargo with baited breath. He couldn't help but be envious of each and every one of them. All the money in the world couldn't give him what they had and not one of them knew it: he'd happily trade places in the blink of an eye.

Meanwhile, lost in the cornfield of onlookers, two young women gripped hands as they burrowed through the throng, each sweating and out of breath, but deadly determined to make their appointment.

"If you hadn't spent so long on your hair!" the black haired friend chided playfully.

"Oh, shove it, Adrian!" the blonde called back, her gray eyes grinning. "I would've been ready if you'd told me sooner!"

Adrian grasped the railing, pressing her whole body weight into it as they came upon the third class boarding ramp. Her lungs were screaming for a timeout and her legs seemed to be taking their side. She heaved in the dewy oxygen as her friend trotted up to the man checking tickets and supplied him with their passes. When she saw the blonde wave her on from the corner of her eye, she pushed herself up and skipped over the threshold, where she paused again, this time to take in the polished smell of the newly christened cruise liner.

"I can't believe I'm actually standing on the Titanic!" She turned to Adrian with the most ridiculous grin on her face and began to jump up and down. "Adrian, we're standing on The Titanic!"

"Grace." Adrian shook her head, still wheezing a bit from all the exertion. She managed a cheeky smile. "What would I do without you?"

"Be standing here with some miserable bloke," she joked. She suddenly threw her arms around her friend. "I still can't believe our luck! Your dad's got to be the worst poker player in the world and yet he just happen to win two tickets with a lucky hand three hours before this ship was about to take off. That's what I call God's hand!"

"You would." The Latina threw one arm over her friend's shoulders. "Godspeed me to the cabin, would you? I think I'm going to die."

"You can't! We've got to get to the deck, don't you want to wave to everyone down before as we take off? That's something you'll regret if you don't."

"Oh," she groaned, leaning her head against Grace's shoulder. "Fine. Tug me along then."

"Thank you!" the blonde squealed. She chattered on for a good two minutes and forty-something seconds until they finally managed to push their way to the top of the ship and squeeze their way over to the railing.

The crowd was deafening in Adrian's ears, surely four or five times as loud as it had been on the deck. She couldn't be sure if the people on the boat were just more raucous or if the crowd had actually grown inside over the blip of time they'd been onboard. Either way, Grace was right: they had to be there. She'd never been so high on anything in her life, but right then, life was getting the best of her. Adrian raised her hand high towards the aquamarine sky and blew it back and forth in the direction of the crowd while Grace hooped and hollered beside her.

"This is the best day of my life!"

The ship groaned beneath her feet as it began to pull away from the dock. The sensation was foreign under her feet and she had to grasp the railing for support. Her stomach lurched: she had never been on a boat before and suddenly she perfectly understood her father's inability to board the boat himself. "I'm not going to get sick, I'm not going to get sick," she sung under her breath, focusing her energies on the moving masses that were getting further and further away from her.

Defiantly, she raised one arm from the railing and began to swing it again, pushing her seasickness to the farthest nether regions of her mind. The maiden voyage of The Ship of Dreams was something that was once in a lifetime and there was not a single thing that Adrian Lee was going to allow to mar the memory of April 10, 1912.